Connives in the rehashing of old clues (8)

I believe the answer is:

colludes

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'connives' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both related to thinking as well as being verbs in their -s form.
Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?

'rehashing of old clues' is the wordplay.
'rehashing of' indicates an anagram (I've seen 'rehash' mean this).
'old'+'clues'='oldclues'
'oldclues' is an anagram of 'COLLUDES'.

'in the' is the link.

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